Hales Street

CliffB has done it again with this smashing 1939 shot of Hales Street including that rarely captured row next to the Smithfield, just pre-war and pre-destruction.

Not sure I like this idea as begs the question what will happen to the Hales Street site? BBC News

Moving the Coventry Transport Museum away from Hales Street is an absolutely terrible idea. I had a good chat with Paul Maddocks the other day, who is "in the know" (and spent years working at the Transport Museum - please see his six super articles on Historic Coventry, beginning with Part 1), and whatever they do in the old IKEA building will not be anything like what we think of as a "museum". They will not retain all the staff or fund proper displays - gone will be all the wonderful features like the Blitz Experience, the Land Speed Record Simulator, the little educational cinemas - it will quite literally be like a huge car par full of old cars. People might walk by thinking "oh, very nice, another old car" without getting the full story that makes such a trip valuable or informative. In my experience, when people from outside Coventry come to visit, the first two major items they wish to see are the Cathedrals and the Transport Museum. I believe losing the museum to IKEA will be a tourist disaster for our city.

I hadn't noticed that sign was a Delivery notice on earlier images of this old entrance. That road in later became the lead up to the old Motor Museum -

You are so right, Rob, we loved those exhibits - especially the Blitz Experience. It's a vital part of Coventry history which involved all industries in the city. Visitors who are not from Cov. probably know a lot about the fantastic cars built there over the years but not too much about the WW11 experience.

Another one as the RR is going in and could've added to several threads but adding here as you can see the Matterson's Plough

To make sure we're back on thread topic - Rob - I had posted that other one before earlier in this thread! And another...........

Hey, no worries, Neil, all these topics link in with each other in some way - we can never properly separate them! I wonder if we can date this one from any of the featured things.... the cars, the adverts - even sometimes the style of telegraph pole wiring and its insulators can suggest a particular era!

A fabulous find from CliffB here -

Nice one! According to the newspapers it looks like it might have been 1906?

I can see Thomas Tullett listed as a 'China Dealer' in the 1912 directory.

The Ruby Ring was in at the Opera House in 1906 Neil

Fantastic to see that photo of Hales street, I used to walk past Mattersons from the bus stop in Bishop Street from when I first started my Saturday job at Morris Bros in Hales Street. Think that was 1958. It was good to earn a few bob and not have to rely on my old man (though I probably still did in reality)